The French insurance company, AXA, has agreed to pay descendants of some of the more than 1.5 million Armenians killed in Turkey under the Ottoman empire.

Under terms of a settlement reached in a U.S. court, $17 million will be shared by Armenian heirs of AXA's policyholders who died in what Armenians say was genocide.

This is the second lawsuit pertaining to the killings to be settled in U.S. courts. In February, New York Life agreed to pay $20 million to descendants of its Armenian policyholders who were victims of the alleged genocide.

One of the plaintiffs' U.S. attorneys, Mark Geragos, said the cases are historic because they are the first to be heard for genocide survivors. Mr. Geragos, who is of Armenian descent, said the ultimate goal of the lawsuits is for the United States and Turkey to officially acknowledge the genocide.